I had to find some way to entertain myself, so I made up stories in my mind. One night I started writing them down and never stopped.

About Robin

Ranty night owl writer of The Empire State Vamps. Love Lies Bleeding - A writer of paranormal suspense discovers that dating a vampire is more than a pain in the neck - it's a pain in the ass. "No one nags like an old, superior, self-righteous vampire." And no one throws a barbecue like a werewolf. I also write about witches, ghosts, fairies, and fairy tales. I take pictures, draw pictures, collect dolls, garden, and have the obligatory 2.5 obnoxious spoiled cats (one of them counts as one and a half.) Solitary Wiccan.

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7 thoughts on “Another high-profile cat-hater”

I read the article and it just proves to me how far removed some people are from reality. Do these same people happen to eat animals (barbaric slaughter), buy cheap products from the Far East (child labour), fly around the world many times or drive “fat” cars (environmental issues),or are avid fans of all sorts of weaponry? The list could go on and on.
It appears to me that some people do not like cats simply because a cat does what it wants to do; which is something most would love to do themselves but because of being “trapped” in their own lifestyles and because of being frightened of change they project their “sufferings” on little furry beings who cannot protect themselves against such “brave” humans. Nature has its own set of rules and the insignificant human being cannot change this fact.

Very well said and thank you for taking the time to comment. “Their” last-ditch argument is that the domesticated cat is a non-native species; thus, evil. I do not accept that argument. I believe it to be a red herring.

It´s difficult to believe that so many so-called “modern”, “civilised” people should live their lives in times of yesteryear. To deduce a normal household cat to a non-native species as being evil sounds very old-testament to my ears. Are these people liviing in the 21st Century? Many things are “non-native” to our countries but it doesn´t mean we have to eliminate everything that doesn´t have its roots in our cultures.

You could also contact the writer directly and present her with some facts. Like, the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages was the result of rats on ships carrying fleas that infected them, and if they hadn’t been so busy eradicating cats (because of the supposed connection to witches) they would have had fewe rats. Also, Disneyworld is using feral/stray cats to keep down the rodent population there, rather than using poisons that could harm guests and the environment.

After reading the short article, she doesn’t come across as all that sympathetic to the book’s authors. She calls the language “inflammatory” and criticizes Franzen’s description of it being “compassionate,” calling it “odd.” Quoting Jared Diamond’s review of it (“gripping”) is pretty vague. “Gripping” could mean anything. Back cover blurbs are often non-committal like that. Frankly I thought she made the book sound like ridiculous sensationalism.

Good. I need to send her links to the feral cat orgs. Oh, someone at Vox Felina said that this book was “endorsed” by the Audubon-affiliated writer Ted William, who wrote an article encouraging people to lace cat food with Tylenol to poison any outside cats. I don’t think his endorsement means anything outside his tiny community of sociopaths, but IMO it’s damaging to the Smithsonian to have an employee write a book that attracts the lunatic fringe.

The Smithsonian has gone downhill in recent years. They used to put out high quality articles, but at least on the website now, I see really poorly written stuff that’s little more than someone’s blog post. It’s very sad.